As the markets for content and SEO professionals expand, marketing leaders need to ensure they have the means to attract and retain top talent in those areas.

Compensation may not be the deciding factor for a candidate to take a job—or for an employee to stay in one—but if your offer isn’t at least competitive, there’s a good chance your ideal candidate may accept a more lucrative offer elsewhere.

And with the demand for content and SEO professionals on the rise, it’s no surprise that salaries are, too.

According to Conductor’s “Inbound Marketing Jobs Salary Guide 2017,” the average salary for an SEO professional has increased from $53,231 in 2012 to $65,764 in 2017. This closely mirrors the 22% increase in SEO positions available in the top 20 cities included in the report.

The number of available SEO positions that growth represents is slim in comparison to the number of available content marketing jobs. There are four times as many content marketing jobs as SEO positions available, the guide says. Even so, SEO skills are in high demand across roles. Nearly half of content marketing positions the study tracked require SEO skills.

The 2017 data confirms the company’s 2016 prediction that SEO will become requirement for nearly all marketers, rather than solely a job title, notes Conductor content marketing manager Esther Chung. In fact, 92% of content marketers surveyed by Conductor agree that “understanding and executing SEO better will help them do their job more effectively,” according to the  2017 report “Anatomy of a Content Marketing.”

Where are all these available positions? New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston top the list for available SEO and content marketing jobs.

As a hiring manager, what should you expect to pay SEO and content marketing professionals? The range of the average salary goes from $55,793 for a social media manager to $105,038 for a director of marketing.

Of course, salary ranges vary based on location, as well as role:

Click Conductor 2017 study.pdf for a larger version of this chart.

About the Author

Ginger Conlon, chief editor and marketing alchemist at MKTGinsight, catalyzes change in marketing organizations. She is a frequent speaker on marketing and customer experience, and serves in advisory or leadership roles for several industry organizations. Ginger was honored with a Silver Apple lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the marketing industry.​

Find her at @customeralchemy and on LinkedIn.